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Burnside War Memorial Hospital Case Study

When less is more – how a private hospital’s review of perioperative blood ordering practices reduced blood bag handling, improved patient safety and freed up nurses for patient care

Background

It was during a hospital-wide Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) survey in 2010 that the surveyor noted that Burnside War Memorial Hospital held a high crossmatched blood inventory, a large proportion of which was returned to the laboratory unused. The recommendation was that the hospital “review the unused blood returned to the private pathology laboratories and report findings to the appropriate clinical review/quality committee.” Burnside Hospital’s Perioperative Services Clinical Manager and nursing staff, with the assistance of the BloodSafe program, took this one step further and implemented simple, but effective changes in its perioperative red blood cell ordering practices. These changes have since reduced blood handling, reduced a risk to patient safety and freed up the nursing staff for patient care, and enabled a reduction in crossed matched blood in the fridge. In addition, Burnside Hospital is well on its way to meeting Standard 7 of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS):